Assuming we get a TPP at some point, do we need to create a Secretariat to administer it? This is from Politico:
A final TPP agreement may be months from conclusion and could take longer to go into force. But supporters are already fretting about how the monstrous trade deal will be administered and talking about the creation of a WTO-style TPP secretariat, ...
...
Deborah Elms, executive director of the Singapore-based Asian Trade Centre, said she finds comments coming from the TPP trade ministers alarming because they suggest the participating countries could continue using a model of committees to address issues in the trade deal. She and others suggest the creation of an administrative office similar to the one used to manage the World Trade Organization.
“You need at a minimum to have a TPP secretariat to handle issues and revisions to the agreement,” said Elms, who discussed the issue in a presentation last week to members of the APEC Business Advisory Council, which was gathered in Beijing. ...
You probably would need a Secretariat for the TPP, but I have an alternative suggestion: Let the WTO Secretariat play this role. The staffers there are pretty good at administering trade agreements. That includes dispute settlement, of course, but I'm thinking more generally about the role they play.
The proliferation of trade agreements is bad enough. Do we really want to see a proliferation of competing trade agreement secretariats?
FURTHER THOUGHTS: The more I think about this idea, the more I like it. An obvious objection might be the location: Geneva, Switzerland is not exactly in the Pacific. That's true, but note that the Pacific is a pretty big region. It's not as though there is a particularly convenient place for all the TPP countries to meet even in the Pacific. (Hawaii may be the best bet -- keep your fingers crossed, trade lawyers!)
So, why not just meet in Geneva? There is so much trade expertise there already. Why not take advantage of that? Setting up dueling centers of trade experts -- government missions and secretariat staff -- seems inefficient.
But I do see the point about location, and I'm sure there are places in the Pacific that would like to host a trade secretariat, so how about this: Establish a TPP branch office of the WTO Secretariat somewhere in the Pacific. That way, you can take advantange of the institutional and technical knowledge of the WTO Secretariat, and keep the administration of trade agreements somewhat integrated.
Of course, the real challenge here is getting a TPP done. There's still a fair amount of work left on that before we can really get into the Secretariat debate!
